CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 159 



its vital processes as are other food constituents and should always 

 be given a place m the diet for this reason. These also are useful for 

 increasing the bulk in a diet which is already sufficiently nutritious 

 but lacking iu amount. Then, too, as Dr. Langworthy has observed,^ 

 the use of fruits, fresh and preserved, often makes palatable an other- 

 wise rather tasteless meal. Jam with bread is a reasonable combi- 

 nation, the highly flavored fruit product whetting the appetite for the 

 needed quantity of rather flavorless bread. 



From the preceding paragraphs it is evident that various kinds of 

 food are necessary if the body is to be well nourished. It now remains 

 to be seen in what combination these articles of food should be selected 

 and in what quantities they should be provided. 



It has been shown already that a certain amount of protein food 

 is necessary. Under ordinary conditions of life natural tastes and 

 desires generally lead to the selection of suitable foods, and so it 

 comes about that the common articles of food consumed by the great 

 majority of people in good health consist of meats, fish, eggs, milk, 

 butter, cheese, sugar, iiour, meal, cereals, fruits, potatoes, and other 

 vegetables. In such foods as these there is plenty of protein mate- 

 rial, and when the amount of food consumed is sufficient to satisfy the 

 appetite and produce a feeling of satisfaction there is no doubt but 

 that the body is supplied with a store from which it may pick out 

 those combinations so essential to its nutrition. When, however, 

 economic conditions become such that the more expensive elements 

 (meat, fish, eggs, milk, and cheese) must be curtailed and the diet 

 must be limited to a few articles of food, and those the very cheapest, 

 care must be taken to provide a sufficient amount of proteins. 



A diet consisting of salt fat pork, com meal, a little white flour, 

 syrup or molasses, and a few green vegetables and fruits is high in 

 fats and starches but low in protein. Salt fat pork consists almost 

 wholly of fat, and while it adds much to the energy value of the diet it 

 is very low in protein (tissue-building substance). The other foods 

 also are low in protein, so that the diet is one-sided and poorly bal- 

 anced. Taken as a whole, the people who live largely on a diet of 

 this sort are more liable to diseases of nutrition (scurvy, beriberi, pel- 

 lagra) and are neither so robust, active, nor productive of efficient labor 

 as others who are more fortunately situated. Combined with foods of 

 this sort there must be protein foods, such as beans, cowpeas, salt fish, 

 and any others that can be afforded if a suitable diet is to be provided. 



THE FOOD IN CONVICT CAMPS. 



It is reasonable to assume that the food furnished to convicts 

 at work on the public highways while serving their sentences should 

 bo wholesome and nutritious but that the cost should bo as low as 



I (;. S. Department of Agriculture: Farmers' Bulletin 293. 

 53577'— Bull. 414—1 G 11 



